1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to automobiles, more specifically to camper shells used for mounting sporting goods, shooting devices, or weapons on vehicles.
2. Background
Military vehicles or other specialized vehicles with turrets allow users to shoot weapons and facilitate transporting weapons from one location to another. Camper shells for commercial automobiles such as pickup trucks and coupe utility vehicles are used to protect cargo from the elements and from theft. Commercial camper shells are normally not armored with weapon mounting capabilities.
Pintle mount adapters that attach to two hitches or gooseneck and straight pipe mounts that attach to truck beds directly have been used to provide a mount for weapons. Such hard mounted system takes up cargo space because of the vertical mount that attaches to the truck bed. In the mini-gun carrying Suburban used by the United States Secret Service, the passenger space needs to be completely modified.
Tow hitch mounts permit only a limited arc of fire to the rear of a vehicle, such as a pickup truck. Dedicated armored vehicles have a much higher visual signature for law enforcement use. Turrets used on military vehicles are not available commercially for non-military vehicle like the average pickup truck. Users cannot mount sporting goods to commercial camper shells, so the user cannot utilize the camper shell as a shaded range bench rifle rest.
As such, there is a need for a camper shell, armored version or not, with the capability to mount accessories and shooting devices/weapons that is integrated into a camper shell and used on any commercially available average non-military vehicle, like a pickup truck so one does not need to purchase a specialized vehicle. There is also a need for the mount to not occupy truck bed space so users can utilize the space for other means. Further, there is a need to have a shaded range bench rifle rest anywhere with truck access so users can easily carry shooting devices, weapons and cargo.